Tra Alessandria e Roma: dinamiche etnico religiose e prospettive politiche della proposta culturale di filone alessandrino

Starting from the ambassadorship to Rome of Philo of Alexandria on the occasion of the Alexandrian pogrom of 38 A.D., the subject of the In Flaccum and the Legatio ad Gaium, the conference aims to investigate how to the universal and ethical-theological dimension applied to historical events, Philo corresponds an educational project centered on Mosaic pedagogy, competitive and alternative to the pagan paideia. Indeed, from the treatises of the Expositio, chronologically traceable to the years between 40 and 49 CE and, according to the latest scholarly evidence, composed by Philo during his Roman sojourn, significant clues emerge that lead one to hypothesize that the Alexandrian read in the tragic end of Caligula and in the initial policy of Emperor Claudius the sign of a precise divine will, glimpsing new margins of action for a regeneration of Judaism. From this perspective, the Philonian political strategy appears fully comprehensible and assessable within the framework of a competitive confrontation with paganism. In fact, recovering those parallels between Judaism and Pythagoreanism already indicated in the Greek sphere and developed in various ways in the Hellenistic Judaic sphere, Philo bases his political and cultural proposal on an ascetic model that appears, in fact, competitive with that advocated in the pagan sphere and represented by Chermon, who was sent to Rome to the emperor Claudius to represent the Greek community of Alexandria. 
In light of the intertwining of prophetic hope and repentance, of repentance and the messianic age, identifiable in the treatises of the Expositio, it therefore seems legitimate to question the purpose of the introduction in the De Specialibus of the figure of the ἄρχων νόμιμος, who is entrusted with the directions for good governance aimed at ensuring a prolonged reign. Is this an exclusively ethical and eschatological perspective, achievable in an indefinite messianic future, or, behind the apparent acceptance of a defined political situation lies a comprehensive political vision? 
The conference intends to interrogate these issues starting from a historical-political and ethno-religious contextualization of the Alexandrian pogrom of 38 B.C., the most recent archaeological findings concerning the Roman Jews, and the philological-literary analysis of the Philonian writings traceable to the period in question.